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Gospatrick and Waltheof's hearts had failed them, and they had retired before the great captain. Florence, of Worcester, says that William bought Earl Osbiorn off, giving him much money, and leave to forage for his fleet along the coast, and that Osbiorn was outlawed on his return to Denmark. Doubtless William would have so done if he could.
The sons of Carl had fought by his side at York; but, notwithstanding this comradeship, the first act of Waltheof's rule in Northumberland was to send men to slay them beyond the bounds of his earldom.
And the best of them believed likewise that Waltheof's murder was the reason that William, her uncle, prospered no more in life. "Ah, saucy sir," said Alftruda to Ulfketyl, as she went out, "there is one waiting at Peterborough now who will teach thee manners, Ingulf of Fontenelle, Abbot, in thy room." "Does Hereward know that?" asked Ulfketyl, looking keenly at her.
Aelred was Waltheof's chief friend; but, though very pious, he was more of a scholar, and read both romances of King Arthur and such works of Cicero as had found their way to Scotland. He was lively in conversation; David was fond of him, and used to tell him stories of his own younger days; and Aelred became the loving chronicler of this happy court.
In the centre of Pocklington Gardens rises St. Waltheof's, the Rev. Cyril Thuryfer and assistants a splendid Anglo-Norman edifice, vast, rich, elaborate, bran new, and intensely old. Down Avemary Lane you may hear the clink of the little Romish chapel bell.
Gilbert's friendship is more important to William, at this moment, than that of a dozen Gospatricks. He holds Lincoln town, and with it the key of Waltheof's earldom: and things may happen, Alftruda I tell you; but if you tell Gilbert, may Hereward's curse be on you!" "Not that! Any man's curse save yours!" said she in so passionate a voice that a thrill of fire ran through Hereward.
He caused his vassals to take an oath of fealty to her as his heiress, and foremost in making this promise were David, King of Scotland as Earl of Huntingdon, in right of his wife, Waltheof's daughter and Stephen de Blois, Count de Mortagne and Boulogne; while Henry engaged at the same time that she should not be married without the consent of the Barons.
"I tell you truth and fact; I will tell you all, Lord Abbot; and you shall judge whether it is not enough to drive an honest man mad to see such things going on under his nose. Men say of me that I am rough, and swear and blaspheme. I put it to you, Lord Abbot, if Job would not have cursed if he had been Lord of Spalding? You know that the king let these Crowland monks have Waltheof's body?"
Of the three earldoms, those of Hereford and East-Anglia were not filled up; the later earldoms of those lands have no connexion with the earls of William's day. Waltheof's southern earldoms of Northampton and Huntingdon became the dowry of his daughter Matilda; that of Huntingdon passed to his descendants the Kings of Scots.
But Northumberland, close on the Scottish border, still needed an earl; but there is something strange in the choice of Bishop Walcher of Durham. It is possible that this appointment was a concession to English feeling stirred to wrath at the death of Waltheof. The days of English earls were over, and a Norman would have been looked on as Waltheof's murderer.
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